“Everybody’s going to the dogs”? The middle classes and greyhound racing in Britain between the wars

Greyhound racing using a mechanical hare arrived from the United States in 1926. It was first commercially introduced at Belle Vue Stadium in Manchester and then spread to Liverpool and London. By the mid 1930s it had become Britain’s third biggest commercial leisure activity, only exceeded by the cinema and by association football. The bulk of spectators came from the working classes. Middle-class interest in the sport has however been less noticed. The middle classes attended as spectators and betters at the leading, more elite courses, especially in London. Furthermore, they played a key role in terms of share ownership, organization, office holding, dog ownership, and training. While men were in the vanguard, there was evidence of interest from some middle- and upper-class women as well. So in wider debates in Parliament, local authorities, the press and elsewhere, the middle classes proved to be split in their attitudes, and as such the study is revealing in terms of British class, culture, and respectability between the wars.